Chapter One
Rose MacFinnan perchedon the arm of the sofa and stared at the bit of paper in her hand. Stark black letters stared right back at her, cold and formal. How had it ever come to this?
Her eyes scanned the letter for the umpteenth time, even though she could recite by heart every single word printed on the page. A heavy feeling formed inside, like she had a bowling ball sitting in her stomach. This was it. It was over.
“That’s the last of them! Thank the Fates!” said a bright voice, snapping her back to the present. Her younger sister, Elise, walked into the living room, and Rose hastily stuffed the paper into the back pocket of her jeans and forced a smile.
“That’s great. Thanks for helping me out today.”
Elise shrugged. “Can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning than helping my big sister brew up cough mixture.” She frowned, screwing up her face. “Oh, wait. Yes, I can.” She began ticking things off on her fingers. “Sleeping late. Going to a coffee shop. Binge-watching something on TV. In fact, pretty much anything else.”
Rose raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Yet here you are anyway.”
Another shrug. “What can I say? I must be a sucker for punishment.”
Rose shook her head, a smile curling her lips. “Yeah, that must be it.”
She felt a swell of affection for her little sister. Elise was the wild child of the family, with her pink hair and free-spirited ways, but she had a heart of pure diamond, no matter how hard she tried to hide it behind flippant remarks and sarcasm. To be honest, Rose envied her. She’d never been able to emulate her younger sister’s confidence or easy charm, the strength or presence of their elder sister, Sarah.
When they’d lost Sarah to cancer, Rose had tried her best to fill the hole she left behind, to become the big sister Elise needed and the wise aunt that Sarah’s daughter, Jenna, needed, but she had a nagging feeling she’d never quite managed either. Like with most things in her life, Rose had fallen short.
Elise wiped her hands on a tea towel and dropped into a chair, pushing her pink-tipped hair out of her eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Rose said quickly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Dunno. You seem a little… distracted. You’ve barely said a word all morning.”
Rose waved a hand. “Just tired, that’s all.”
Elise snorted. “That’s hardly surprising, is it? You’ve been running around all summer treating summer colds, measles, chicken pox, and Fates-alone-knows what else. You’re not as young as you used to be.”
Rose gave her a flat look. “Elise, I’m thirty-seven. I don’t need you wheeling me to an old-folks’ home just yet.”
Elise grinned. “You know I’m only kidding. But seriously, you work too hard.”
Rose sighed. How many times had they had this conversation? “Elise, I’m a MacFinnan spellweaver. It’s myjobto help people.”
“We arebothMacFinnan spellweavers,” Elise corrected. “And yes, it’s our job to help people, but it isnotour job to drive ourselves into the ground doing so. When was the last time you had a holiday? Heck, when was the last time you even took a day off?” The mischievous grin was gone, and Elise looked serious all of a sudden. She leaned forward and took Rose’s hand. “I’m worried about you. You’re drivingyourself too hard. If Jenna were here, she’d say the same thing.”
“But she’snothere, is she?” Rose snapped. “And with her gone, it’s even more important that I keep on top of things.”
Jenna, their niece, and fellow MacFinnan spellweaver had lived nearby until recently, just on the other side of the lake behind Rose’s house. But she’d just got married and now lived all the way over in Scotland. And several hundred years in the past to boot. Rose tried not to think about that. It made her head hurt whenever she did.
Elise sighed. “Has anyone ever told you how stubborn you can be?”
“Yes. You have. Many times. It must be a family trait.”
“Touché,” Elise replied with a smile. She climbed to her feet. “Just think about what I’ve said, will you? You can’t keep putting everyone before yourself, Rose. You deserve to be happy too. Especially with what you’ve been going through this past year.”
Rose opened her mouth and closed it again. She didn’t have an answer to that.
Elise put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
Rose caught her hand and squeezed it. “Thanks, Elise.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m just looking out for myself. I don’t want you driving yourself to exhaustion and leaving me to do all the work, do I?”
She gave another lazy grin, then sauntered out the front door, letting it bang closed behind her and leaving Rose alone in the echoing house.
